Elizabeth Warren Calls For Probe Into Trump's Red-State Favoritism on Federal Medical Supplies
April 24th 2020
White House Coronavirus Update Briefing April 20, 2020 (The White House)
By Kerry Eleveld
Donald Trump was bound to politicize the distribution of critical medical supplies in the midst of a pandemic and he clearly has. While Democratic governors have repeatedly been shorted on critical equipment they need to fight the novel coronavirus in their states, Republican governors appear to have gotten most or even all of what they asked for.
“To date, Massachusetts, which was one of the first states hit by COVID-19, has received only a fraction of its request for PPE and other medical supplies from the [Strategic National Stockpile], while Florida received the full quantity of supplies within three days of its first request and also received the full quantity of a second order," Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts wrote to the internal watch dogs at the departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services.
Warren and nine other Democratic senators are urging two inspectors general to look into the uneven distribution of the crucial medical supplies by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). They note that the Trump administration switched management of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) from the Centers for Disease Control to FEMA in 2018. The stockpile is in short supply after being somewhat depleted during the H1N1 pandemic in 2009, which has made efficient deployment to the states most in need even more critical now. But the formulas being used to determine which states need to be prioritized have been all over the place, and pronouncements by Trump and his top officials about the distribution are only making matters more murky.
"Details regarding distribution decisions have been limited, causing confusion and distress among states who are desperately trying to secure materials," write the senators, adding: "President Trump may also be using his influence to deliver medical supplies to certain states as a way to support vulnerable Republican Senators up for re-election in the fall.”
In Colorado, for instance, Trump randomly decided to supply the state with 100 ventilators from the stockpile at the request of Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, who is facing a very tough reelection bid this fall. Meanwhile, FEMA canceled an order by the state's governor, Jared Polis, for 500 ventilators so it could buy the ventilators instead.
"All the while, the President has told other governors that they should not expect federal help with procuring supplies, warning them that the federal government is ‘not a shipping clerk,'" the senators write. Remember when boy blunder Jared Kushner claimed the SNS wasn't supposed to be for the states, calling it "our stockpile," even though it was expressly created in 1999 to supplement medical supplies for states and other locales in the event of a national emergency? In some cases, the federal government has even seized medical supplies that states and hospitals have attempted to purchase for their medical workers. (The chief physician executive of a major Massachusetts health system recently wrote a harrowing account of trying to secure a shipment of medical masks for his front-line medical workers.)
"To provide clarity to states and improve federal government distribution procedures, we urge you to immediately investigate the distribution of medical supplies from the SNS and Project Airbridge as well as any other inquiries your offices find appropriate," the senators conclude, providing a list of about dozen specific questions about distribution of the SNS and FEMA's management of it.
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